Thanks to the Antbot, you can see and interact with any location remotely. Applications have included roving security imaging at a solar power facility owned by Montana Ambiente, food deliveries as reported in the Italian newspaper Eco Risveglio and telepresence in antipodal global meetings (video below).

Screenshot of the current Robots Anywhere console, now with support for multiple simultaneous image streams.

A video of an Inertia Labs Renegade drone patrolling an apartment building floor using Robots Anywhere.

Antbot Genetic Programming

Proven at the University of Ottowa, our Antbot with genetic programming demonstrated that low-cost educational robots can make a fantastic platform for experimental software and real world utility. This specific project was used in the Master’s Thesis for our own Riley August, who developed a new scripting language for the Antbot and optimized for speed and efficient movement, increasing ease of use by genetic operators.
The custom scripting language defined a state-based flowchart with functions acting as states, and every line examined as a possible event. When run in a simulator, this allows the interaction and cooperation of a large number of Antbots. The genetic programming ‘evolved’ a controller capable of navigating an indoor space with the minimum number of collisions with objects and walls while making as much forward progress as it can.

We began with a completely random seed, and within five hundred generations of evolution the many bots were able to navigate corridors and rooms nearly as well as when using a pre-designed controller. We recorded the most successful Antbot in action, satisfying the Thesis defense and showcasing our uniquely capable rover.